A linear motor is applied to various industrial machines, including a component mounting apparatus for transferring and mounting an electronic component onto a board. In this component mounting apparatus, a linear motor is used, for example, in a driving mechanism for driving a component-sucking nozzle up and down.
For example, such a linear motor is, as disclosed in a Patent Document 1, provided with a field element having an array of permanent magnets arranged in one direction in such a manner that magnetic poles on the side of surfaces thereof differ from one another, and an armature disposed opposed to the field element and equipped with a core wound with a coil. The linear motor is designed to use one of the field element and the armature as a stator and the other as a mover, and relatively move the mover with respect to the stator linearly in an arrangement direction of the permanent magnets, according to an application of control current to the coil.
Patent Document 1: JP 2005-253259A